


Voltron, Just add water

by Yellowbirdbluetoo



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: H20: Just add water au, M/M, Saw this somewhere else so sorry if it looks like I copied, but I was watching the show so here, lance is a merman, rating may change I dunno, shrug, take it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-07
Updated: 2017-11-06
Packaged: 2018-12-24 22:36:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12022494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yellowbirdbluetoo/pseuds/Yellowbirdbluetoo
Summary: Lance is hiding a secret. A very big secret.   A secret that probably won't stay secret for long.Oh why did he have to fall into that stupid moon pool?





	1. In this world

It's dinner time and Lance is in the bathroom, silver blue tail flopping around as he quickly tries to dry it off with a towel. 

"Lance?". Shiro knocked on the door, concern in his voice. The others were crowded around the door as well. Hunk seemed worried, Pidge looked curious, and Keith just leaned against the wall, a barely noticeable suspicious look on his face. 

"I-i'm fine. I just.... don't like water . And I had to dry off". He lies, drying himself faster. 'Oh god if they find out... they'll think I'm a freak'. He thought, feeling panicky. He rubs the towel faster. Sure they didn't think Keith was a freak when he was revealed to be half-Galra. 

But then again being Galra wouldn't compromise a mission, where as if he got hit with one drop of water he'd be almost completely useless in ten seconds flat. If they hadn't had those helmets and suits when they'd went to that underwater planet, he could've been mistaken for one of the aliens!

Still he kept it a secret on earth, he could do it again. 

He finally dried off the last of the water and his tail shined and flashed back into legs. He took a moment to wiggle his toes and breathed a sigh of relief, quickly standing and opened the door. 

"Sorry about the freak out guys". He says, excuse already on the tip of his tongue. God he hates that he was so good at lying to his friends. "I just...don't like water very much".

Hunk gives him a look. "But you went swimming all the time back on earth. And you freaked out when we found that planet that had a beach. So what gives?".

He swallows nervously. "I dunno. Just... I don't really like water anymore". The lie slips through his teeth again. Too easily. 

He hears Hunk make a worried humming noise but he eventually relents. "If you say so. Are you sure your okay?". Lance nods and Hunk smiles at him making his way to the kitchen. "I saved you a plate if your hungry". Lance grins. "Boy am I!". And follows his friend to the kitchen, ignoring the guilt in his stomach. 

-/- "Fun fact about this planet". Allura' voice came in though the helmet comm."Is that the planets moon is nearly exactly like the moons cycle on earth. I though you might like that".

Lance nearly froze, but kept flying his lion with the others onto the planet. 

"Tonight's a full moon". He murmurs to himself, forgetting the comm was still on. Pidge'a voice crashed through to his ears. "What? Really? Cool! It's been ages since I've seen a full moon. They look really pretty and spooky at the same time". She rambles about them and Shiro chuckles at her antics. 

"Yeah. I remember one Halloween where I refused to leave the house since there was a full moon. Lance kept trying to pull me outside". Hunk recalled fondly. 

Lance manages to snap out of his panic and adress Hunk. "That's because you would have been sad that you missed free candy and I was so not sharing my haul. Besides I eventually pushed you out of the house".

Hunk laughed. "Yeah. Can't blame me. You know werewolves come out in full moons". 

Lance could practically feel the eye roll in Keith's voice when he spoke. "Werewolves. Really?".

Hunk stammered. "Gimme a break. I was eight".

Lance smirked. "We're not all brave like tall, broody, and emo over there. I'm sure Keith's not afraid of anything". Lance said teasingly. 

Shiro pipes up suddenly. "Keith was terrified of the Kool-aid man".

The comms are silent for a moment before they erupt into laughter, and Lance laughs harder after hearing Allura ponder 'What on Altea is a...cool-aid man?'

"Shiro!". Keith shouts furiously, scowl already in place. 

"Sorry Keith. But sometimes things don't go as planned. Like how you probably planned on keeping that secret buried for the rest of your life". Pidge snickered and started another round of laughter. 

"W-well Shiro was afraid to go into hot topic with me when I was eleven cause some girl told him it was haunted". Keith shouts and more laughter arises. Lance bets Shiro's face is red by now. 

But...

"So you were emo even when you were eleven too. Keith had teen angst before it was cool".

Keith rolls his eyes jokingly. "Sure Lance. I'm sure you were scared of something? The boogeyman? Maybe saw some horror movie when you were little and got scared for life?".

Lance stayed silent. Things he was scared of as a kid? Not much. "Maybe the dark? Sharks for sure".

"C'mon". Pidge scoffed. "I used to be scared of dogs when I was little. Because four year old me was really tiny and big dogs made me cry a lot. And my uncle had his huge black golden retriever who chased me around the yard once and I was so scared I nearly peed my pants. Something like that. You gotta have some scary dirt on yourself".

Even keith got into it a bit. "Yeah. We already went. Your turn".

"I'm thinking I'm thinking". Lance stalled. Let's see. 

"Oh! El Cuco! Definitely him". 

"What the heck is that?". 

"It's Latin folklore. My parents used it on me and my siblings if we didn't behave. 'If you don't go to bed right this instant El Cuco will show up and take you away!' And it worked for a long time. Heck, still makes me shiver when I say his name"

. Hunk chuckled. "I think that one seems like something you'd actually be afraid of".

Pidge snorted. "Better than hot topic or the Kool-aid man".

What is this cool-aid man?". Allura asks in surreal confusion. 

The others begin explaining it to her and Lance finds himself drifting away from the conversation and letting his mind wander. 

Okay. As long as he kept his eyes down and didn't look at the sky, he'd be fine. Just no looking at the sky. Or any reflective surfaces. Like water. Or the screen of his lion. Or any of the Lions reflective surfaces. Okay so basically keep his eyes on the ground at all time. Or blindfold himself. Oh it was gonna be a long night.

He trailed behind the others, offering comments every once and again but keeping his eyes down. All he got was a nice view of the forest floor and his shoes. 

"Lance?". Hunk's voice. He resisted the urge to look up and moved so his view was of Hunk and refused to look even a bit above his friends face. 

'Must not look at moon. Must not look at moon'. He recited in his head, over and over, and attempted to put an easy going smile on his face. "Yeah buddy?".

"You alright? You've been way more focused on the ground than anything else. Or the moon. Or stars. Or anything".

"Just thinking". Lance supplies lamely. 'Not a good excuse'. He thinks to himself. No a terrible fucking excuse because who would believe that?

"He wants to stare at the ground let Lance stare at the ground". Keith said, sounding impartial to the whole thing. He walked next to Shiro and Lance almost thought the subject had dropped when Pidge spoke from behind him and made him jump. 

"Sorry. But Hunk's right your acting weird".

Pidge moved from behind him to infront of him and Lance looked up from the ground to meet her eyes, which weren't that far up from the ground anyway.

Except there was one problem. 

Pidge's glasses. Pidge's very very reflective glasses. Pidge's very very reflective glasses that were reflecting the moon.

Shit.


	2. We're all alone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay so all he did was look at the full moon. No biggie. Okay big biggie. But it's fine. Okay no it isn't.

If a normal person had to describe the full moon, they'd probably say that it was nice and pretty and if it was Halloween it'd be a bit spooky. Atmospheric.

But Lance had a different opinion. 

The moon, sure he thought it was pretty. But the effects were a whole different deal. Especially to a merman. Yeah. Definitely a whole different meaning. 

He'd explain it as being drunk, yet aware of your surroundings. But than also having the attention span of a five year old. Only one subject on your mind at a time.

He wondered if it differentiated between mermaids because this, the water, mako island, the beach, the moon itself. If anything that had to do with those things came up he could probably go on for hours. 

Worse enough he could barely remember anything that happened the day after. Luckily it's only happened a few times before he got the hang of it, and found himself sitting holed up somewhere, shades drawn, door locked, sunglasses on, and with stack of old movies to last a night. 

And that's how he'd been doing. Up until now. Turns out being a defender of the universe means you can't hole up every month if your needed to fight some evil. Specially since you don't exactly have a moon up in the sky anymore.... or a sky at all. 

But he had at least hoped, since this wasn't a moon on earth it wouldn't have an effect. 

Of course he had to be wrong. 

"Lance!".

He looked up quickly. "What?".

Hunk gave him a weird look. "I've been saying your name for a while and you haven't answered. You okay?".

"Yeah yeah. Totally". Lance glances up again, moon catching his eyes. It's pretty, and big. Hypnotizing in a way.

He shakes his thoughts away. But what was he thinking about? He can't seem to remember and-

Oh no. 

Okay memeory loss was to be expected but this soon? God he hoped this wouldn't end as badly as it seemed it would.

And the suddenly he could feel it. Water. As if it were rushing past him at the very moment. As if he were swimming in it. Only one feeling swirled in him now. The need for water. He needed water. He needed to feel it. He needed to be in it. To breathe it. . 

Its rushing past his ears and its as if all the air around him has been turned into water, rushing loudly around him.

As if his feet were moving on their own he takes off running in a direction that must lead to water. He vaguely hears the others shouting after him but the moon must've boosted his abilities because before long he can't hear it anymore. All he can hear is water. 

He's perched on a cliffs edge looking over what seems to be an ocean. An alien oceans? He dosen't really know. 

He retracts his suit and once he's in his normal clothes he peels off his shoes. He walks a few steps until he's on the very edge and he hears someone cry out from behind. 

"Lance what are you doing?!". Its just water rushing past his ears. 

He jumps. 

-/-

Okay he dives is a better term because all Hunk can do is rush to the edge of the cliff. Quickly followed by the others. 

"What the hell! Did Lance just jump off a cliff, or are my glasses really dirty again?".

"Uh, no. He definitely jumped off the cliff". Keith pipes up from next to Shiro who's still staring down at the water. "We have to get down there and see if he's alright". Everyone agrees and they begin rushing down the the beach. 

-/-

When Lance hit the water he immediately felt better. Calmer. The water became fizzy and he felt his legs melt away into a crystal deep blue tail.

He swims far out and finds a cave where he emerges. He cocks his head to the side. "A second moon pool?". His full moon addled brain supplied an answer for the almost identical cave setting. There was no open sky hole like the one on earth but he supposed this one was fine. 

Now what? His mind suddenly seemed less fuzzy and he could break out that he didn't know where the heck he was excactly. 

He could call the others for help. At least he was pretty sure they could track his suit. 

Which he left on the edge of the cliff. Uh oh. Okay he could swim back and hope that they were scouring the beach for him. What if they thought he was dead?

Okay time to start swimming back. 

-/-

"Lance!". Hunk calls out across the beach. The others do the same, even Keith, and he's starting to get worried. 

"Shiro?". He asked quietly. "You.... you don't think...". The leader placed a hand on his shoulder and gave a small smile. "Of course not. I'm sure Lance is fine. Let's just keep checking. Take Pidge and go look at the other side. We'll keep looking over here".

-/-

Pidge.... well isn't crying but her eyes seem shiny and she sniffs a lot, playing them off with coughs. "You know he's okay right? I mean, he's Lance. He's always okay. Even that time he fell out of the practice shuttle".

"I'm". He swallowed. "I'm sure he's fine Pidge".

They continued searching in somber silence. 

-/-

Lance peeked his head out from the beach water. From his vantage point he could see Shiro, Allura, Keith on the beach, probably looking for him. 

Pidge and Hunk were on the other side, and he could faintly hear them calling his name.

He chooses Hunk and Pidge.

Swimming up is difficult because the seaweed is getting caught in his tail, and it’s a bit like a fish trying to swim with too little water but he makes it. He clears his throat and loud enough for Hunk to hear he whisper-shouts. 

“Dude!”. 

Hunk whips around, sees Lance, and Lance thinks he can see the direct second when he notices the tail connected to him because he goes speechless. 

He pokes Pidge who turns and also goes wide eyed at him. He tilts his head. “What?”.

“Duuuuuude”. Hunk draws out, dragging Pidge over. “Your a mermaid”. Lance rolls his eyes. “I prefer Merman. Mermaids are usually girls and- Wait I’m getting off track. Okay. I need you to help me out of the water and get me into the beach so I can dry off”.

Hunk raises an eyebrow. Lance does the same and Hunk sighs but goes to lift under the arms. “Woah, Pidge maybe get the other side?”.

She shorted paladin kicks her shoes off and joins to help. “So we’re just not gonna talk about the whole Mermaid thing?”. She huffs and they struggle to pull him and his heavy tail out of the water. 

“Well, we could after I’m normal again”. Lance replies. “Dude your really heavy”. Pidge grunts her agreement. 

Hunk slipped and the three went down with Pidge’s shout of ‘shit!’.

Which of course drew attention from the others. Lance could hear the footsteps coming and sighed. Well, there goes his chance of keeping things simple. 

The footsteps come to a stop, and he pushes himself up off the sand so he can see the others. He flops his tail and gives a shy smile. “Hey guys”.

Of course, he’s now because his tail shimmers and becomes legs again. He stands shakily. 

“Okay. So I might have some explaining to do”.


	3. Should we talk? We should talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance has to discuss the whole... being a Merman thing with the team.

“So you might have some questions”.

They’re all back on the ship, and Lance is sitting in the couch with Hunk next to him, Shiro on the edge of the couch, Pidge sitting on the floor, Keith leaning broodingly on the wall, and Allura and Coran standing in the front. 

“Uh, yeah! I have some questions!”. Pidge says loudly making Lance wince. 

“Like why Lance had a tail? Cause I’d say that’s a good start”. Keith says sarcastically. 

Lance stands and waves his arms spastically. “Okay. Don’t get all mad at me Keith! I’m doing my best!”. He crosses his arms. Shiro raises an eyebrow. “Okay. Let’s just calm down. And Lance can tell us as much as he wants, if he wants to. Lance?”.

Lance’s head shoots your to look at Shiro. “Yes?”. 

“You wanna explain anything?”. 

Lance makes a confused face. “Explain what?”. 

Shiro seems surprised at that. “The... Merman situation”.

Landed eyes widen. “Oh! That! Sorry I forgot what we were talking about”. He plunks down on the couch. “What do you wanna know?”.

Pidge’s hand shoots up, before they shyly put it down. “Sorry. Forgot this isn’t the Garrison. Just wondering, why were you acting so strange on that planet?”.

“Full moon. It has a... loopy effect on Mermaids. It’s why I keep forgetting things, and being weird. It should wear off.....”. He stopped suddenly and stared off at a corner of the room. 

It must’ve been at least a minute and a half at least, before Hunk snaps his fingers and Lance snaps out of the trance. “What? What’s going on?”. He jumps off the couch again and looks around seemingly puzzled. He shakes his head. “Sorry. I’m kinda frazzled. ?”.

He notices everyone’s looks and sits down again. “God I feel sooo embarrassed. My brain is like garbage right now”. He blows a raspberry as if to demonstrate. “It’s just jumbled up like a blender and I just wasn’t thinking about the whole moon thing during the mission because what are the odds that’d I be near a full moon in space and then the moon reflected off of Pidge’s glasses and it just kinda spiraled from there and-“. 

“Lance”. Shiro places a grounding hand on his shoulder. “Lance. Are you alright?”. 

Lance nods. “Yes. No. Totally fine. Just... out of it. Kinda. You know? It’s like going to the dentist and they give you the stuff and it makes you weird”. He makes a few vague motions with his arms. “Y’know?”.

“Anyways what were we taking about? The whole mermaid thing. It’s a really complicated backstory. Like a whole thing with an island, and a prophecy and it’s honestly really confusing”.

Pidge snorts. “Sorry but you’re kinda unintentionally being hilarious. You seem really washed up in the head”.

“Yeah. It’s not ideal. But like, it comes with having a tail. And breathing underwater. And talking to fish and controlling elements. It was a lot to take in but still, how cool right?”. He’s moved to lean against the arm of the couch and has his feet resting on Hunk’s lap. He looks excited and it must be thrilling to talk about something that was secret. 

“Hang up the phone. Elemental powers? You mean like superpowers?”. Pidge says excitedly, inquiring grin already set on their face. 

Lance matches her enthusiasm quickly. “Yeah. I mean only liquids, but still! Yeah!”.

Pidge grins and Shiro seems to suppress his groan. “Pidge please. Wait a bit before you try to experiment with Lance”. Pidge pouts. “I wasn’t going to do it yet! Maybe wait until this-“. She gestures to Lance happily babbling with Hunk but still seemingly not completely there in the head.”- wears off. But I did wanna run some tests”.

“I figured. But give us all some time to process. And give him some time too”. She rolls her eyes and sits back with a huff. “Fine”.

“Well”. Allura clasps her hands together. “I’m feeling weary from that whole ordeal so I suggest dinner and bed rest for everyone. We’ll continue this conversation and training tomorrow”.

Everyone seems to agree and Hunk helps Lance to his room. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhh this chapter feels short sorry!! On the other hand I’m glad this fic seems to Ben popular and that you guys like it! If you’ve got any recommendations for what should or could happen next feel free to commment I love advice. A if you have me a prompt for ask week sorry it hasn’t gotten to you, but I’m trying to finish most of them so I don’t just randomly release them all. It might be under one singular work so keep a heads up!!! I hope to get them done soon! Thx and sense ya later!
> 
> -/- ;3 maybe the next chapter will be longer I mean who knows ;) ;) ;)


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